Farm Fresh Blog

Vacations for us are often "working vacations." We tend to end up looking at cattle, sheep, or goats, or . . .  we look at horses and dogs that we can use to work cattle, sheep or goats.

This vacation was no exception. We took some time off to go look at sheep, but still ended up at several cattle auctions. (Go figure!  Other Half can NOT pass up a cattle auction.)

We came away from our vacation with several points of wisdom:

* Cattle prices vary greatly across the state.  (and bulls are bringing more than steers per pound now so we can save ourselves the headache of castration this spring)

* A vacation is not a good time to cut out caffeine. There is nowhere for your spouse to hide.

* If you are using a TomTom navigational system, there is a big difference between Abilene State Park and Alilene State Park.  Hmpphf! Whodathunkit?

* The goat and sheep capital of Texas is Goldthwaite.  No, I still don't know how to pronounce it, but the people are nice.

* The people of Goldthwaite do not get angry when you cause a traffic jam by stopping in the road to help a goat get her head out of the fence. (and it's a nice way to meet the local ranchers)

* Hunting up old friends that you haven't seen in years is a good thing. It's like finding a sparkly treasure in your dresser drawer that you forgot you had.

* Even if you already have two dogs stuffed into the cab of an F350 pickup truck, you can still manage to fit in a third if he has a hard-luck story and sad brown eyes.

* If you have been waiting for weeks for a goat to give birth, she will most certainly do so when you leave on vacation.

* Other Half can move pretty fast when he sneaks into the woods to pee and finds a snake at his feet.  This is especially true after you have been to Sweetwater, home of the Rattlesnake Round-Up!(The mental image of that man coming out of the forest with his pants un-done still has me in stitches!)

* There are no schedules when Other Half finds a cattle auction, a giant tack store, or a state park that just happens to be hosting a historical reenactment complete with period costumes, soldiers, blacksmithing, dutch oven cooking, and God help us, CANNONS!

Quote for the trip:
 
When I asked why he was capable of walking all over the giant expanse of parade grounds to view the many historical booths when he gripes about walking to the back of our pasture, he replied,

"There isn't a cannon in the back pasture."

Touche'